NHP Forum - Children and Young People - Special Interest Group

This is a co-created event- please let us know if you have something to share at the meeting or would like to plan it with us. We have someone coming to briefly present to us but this is about collective wisdom so please bring your ideas! Any offers welcome either on the topic, or if you have a game or activitiy to share.

Many of you will be familiar with the Nature and Health Practice Network (NHP), which has been building momentum over recent years and has achieved a great deal in bringing together practitioners to share experience, whilst advocating for and increasing the reach and scope of nature-based practice, across many areas.

At NHP we know there are multiple, evidenced, holistic benefits for people's health when individuals and groups are facilitated in natural settings by health and wellbeing professionals.

NHP is also about finding ways of connecting people to nature for their health and wellbeing and through this connectedness encourage pro-environmental behaviour and therefore greater care & support for the natural world.

Further information can be found on their website here: https://www.natureandhealthpractitioners.com/professionals

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Within NHP, Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have formed, focusing on particular areas of common interest, with the hope that these groups will go into detail in an area that supports the overall purpose of NHP, but allows for a deeper dive into a specific area of nature-based services. Whilst building support and sharing learning within the group.

Currently there exists SIGs for:

- Therapists, counsellors, Eco therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists

- Research in Nature based approaches

- Nature in Statutory Services

The Birch Collective (Tim, Amy and Ro) are taking a lead on the formation of the Children and Young People's, SIG and are pulling together a broad spectrum of people and organisations working in this area to begin an exploration.

Our hope for this group is to find the commonality and difference in one another's experience and consider how we might be better resourced for the future. What resourced means for each of us will of course look different and this will be the basis of our initial enquiry and gathering.

First meeting focus: Set out a roadmap for the group. Begin with the end in mind. Develop a set of desirable and achievable outcomes and areas for continued discussion and exploration, as a group.

Areas that might prove to be useful starting points for discussion/your thoughts in the days before:

- Youth participation/voice - When/How/Avoiding tokenism- both within the SIG and wider.

- Support/shared learning/enquiry

- Peer support/mentoring between practitioners

- Provision/best practice/quality standards

- Training

- Research/Policy

- Evaluation

-Advocacy and representation of work with young people in nature, within NHP and beyond

- Commissioning/Funding

- Referral Pathways

- Partnerships/collaborations/linking up services

- The role of CYP SIG within the wider NHP:

The Birch Collective will be committing to undertaking the administration involved and feeding our learning and outcomes back to the umbrella groups, being the NHP Forum and the overarching Steering Group, for a year. We may occasionally be invited to bring a focus for forum meetings. We welcome any offers of collaboration and assistance in the ongoing formation of this group.

Regularity: We are initially proposing to meet 4 times this year. With a suggested blend of in-person and online, following meeting dates suggested below:

SUMMER:

Date: Wednesday July 12th

Time: 3-5.30pm

In-person

Location: Boiling Wells Lane, Bristol BS2 9XY

AUTUMN

Date: Wednesday September 20th

Time: 1:00 - 5.30pm (½ day in person, a more experiential afternoon of being with the land as a group)

In-person

Location: Brown Rock Farm (Outdoor College) 187 Clevedon Road, Tickenham, North Somerset, BS21 6RT (TBC)

WINTER

Date: Wednesday 13th December

Time: 11-12:30

Online (TBC)

Warmly,

Tim, Ro and The Birch team.

Host or Publisher The Birch Collective